Manually actuated quarterturn valves are used in numerous applications where a valve disc must be precisely positioned and where the valve disc position must be precisely known. Because it is often very difficult to ascertain the position of a valve disc, numerous types of signal devices and directional indicators have been developed to accurately relay the exact position of the valve disc to a remote operator. Signal devices and directional indicators can be used separately or in combination, depending upon the requirements of the system in which the valve is being used, to indicate the position of the valve disc and to relay that information to a remote operator.
While the addition of signal devices and directional indicators is certainly beneficial, it is often very difficult and expensive to custom mount a given signal device and/or directional indicator on a particular valve. This is particularly problematic due to the infinite variety of valve shaft sizes and the large variety of signal devices and directional indicators. As a consequence of this lack of uniformity in valve shaft size, significant time and expense is required to retrofit a signal device and/or directional indicator to a particular manually actuated valve.
The existing process of adapting a signal device and/or directional indicator to a particular valve shaft often requires that the valves be removed from the pipes and then sent with the desired signal device and/or directional indicator to a remote location for custom assembly. At the remote location, the valve shaft is precisely measured, and, from those measurements, the hardware required to mount the signal device and/or directional indicator on the valve is manufactured. As a result, considerable time and expense is required to adapt a signal device and/or directional indicator to a particular valve. The amount of time involved in this process can result in significant plant downtime.
The customized mounting of signal devices and/or directional indicators on quarterturn valves must be repeated whenever a conventional valve having a signal device and/or directional indicator is replaced. Often times when a valve is replaced, the replacement valve does not have the same size of shaft as the replaced valve. Consequently, the hardware adapting the signal device and/or directional indicator to be attached to the replaced valve is either unusable on the replacement valve or must be modified to adapt to the structure of the replacement valve.
A need, therefore, exists for an universal adaptor that simplifies the application of signal devices and/or directional indicators to manually actuated quarterturn valves.
While there are numerous methods and means for attaching a signal device and/or directional indicator to a manually actuated quarterturn valve, none are known to have a similar structure to, or to function in the manner of, the present invention.